Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Found the nasty little ric back behind/under the rockwork. Digging it out required that I remove ALL my rocks, and when I put 'em back they didn't look as good, so I need to re-do it again tomorrow. After I get another net, because it's honestly impossible to do much in there with the clown chomping on my fingers every 5 seconds. There certainly is never a shortage of things to do, that's for sure.
Zoa rescued from urchin and glued back down, I think everything should be pretty secure now, only thing I want to re-do is one of the rics, just because I don't know if I like where it's at.
Moved a couple of the rocks around a bit, might buy a couple more pieces to fill everything out a bit, and make room for future frags.
Got my chaeto and a couple of striped nano stars from SeaLifeInc, made a little net cage for the chaeto in my middle chamber, so hopefully I won't end up with it all getting sucked into my return pump like last time.
Pretty blue ric has floated itself off to parts unknown, which annoys me, it was IMO the prettiest one. Need to find it.
Moved a couple of the rocks around a bit, might buy a couple more pieces to fill everything out a bit, and make room for future frags.
Got my chaeto and a couple of striped nano stars from SeaLifeInc, made a little net cage for the chaeto in my middle chamber, so hopefully I won't end up with it all getting sucked into my return pump like last time.
Pretty blue ric has floated itself off to parts unknown, which annoys me, it was IMO the prettiest one. Need to find it.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
New Arrivals!
Got my new CuC from Reef Cleaners and some new livestock from Sea Life Inc.
Reefcleaners CuC:
The snails all look about like snails. A few extras, most of 'em seem fine. Got a few each Nassarius, Dwarf Ceriths, and small Nerites. The Fuzzy Chiton has moved a bit, seems ok. Same with the two Limpets. Even the four hermits are pretty cool, one is in a Cowrie shell, and the other three have kind of lemon-lime green legs.
SeaLifeInc order:
I got some ricordeas that look really, really good! I'm very impressed. I ordered 3 different single mouthed specimens, and they sent me those, plus a really pretty 3 mouthed one free! The hairy stars both seemed fine, then retreated into the rocks. I assume they're nocturnal. The urchin has been moving around, I hope he does well, very cool little thing. The zoa frags look good too, one is on a frag plug and the other was basically loose polyps that I just scattered around my existing zoas for some extra color. The zoas were supposed to be five polyps each, and were more like 10-12 each.
Reefcleaners CuC:
The snails all look about like snails. A few extras, most of 'em seem fine. Got a few each Nassarius, Dwarf Ceriths, and small Nerites. The Fuzzy Chiton has moved a bit, seems ok. Same with the two Limpets. Even the four hermits are pretty cool, one is in a Cowrie shell, and the other three have kind of lemon-lime green legs.
SeaLifeInc order:
I got some ricordeas that look really, really good! I'm very impressed. I ordered 3 different single mouthed specimens, and they sent me those, plus a really pretty 3 mouthed one free! The hairy stars both seemed fine, then retreated into the rocks. I assume they're nocturnal. The urchin has been moving around, I hope he does well, very cool little thing. The zoa frags look good too, one is on a frag plug and the other was basically loose polyps that I just scattered around my existing zoas for some extra color. The zoas were supposed to be five polyps each, and were more like 10-12 each.
I forgot to get more Superglue gel at the store today, so for now everything is placed rather tentatively. I'll try to get some good pictures after tomorrow's water change has settled, but here are some quick night shots.
Nano Red Bristle Starfish and 3 mouthed Ricordea
Pin Cushion Urchin
Single Ricordea
Single Ricordea
3 mouthed Ricordea
Friday, January 13, 2012
Firefish croaked during the night.
Don't know what was wrong, the water tests fine and the B/W Clown and YWG are both perfectly happy.
Just got back with my replacement fish, doing well so far, but then again so did the last one at first. Fingers crossed.
I also got two little bits of rock, one with 4 blue mushrooms and one with ~25 greenish mushrooms. They're small, but I think worth the $30 I paid. We'll see how they do. Pics when they acclimate and open up.
Don't know what was wrong, the water tests fine and the B/W Clown and YWG are both perfectly happy.
Just got back with my replacement fish, doing well so far, but then again so did the last one at first. Fingers crossed.
I also got two little bits of rock, one with 4 blue mushrooms and one with ~25 greenish mushrooms. They're small, but I think worth the $30 I paid. We'll see how they do. Pics when they acclimate and open up.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Aaaand we're back!
Well, it's been a while. Keeping up with the tank during EMT school isn't exactly a priority, so thing's haven't gone exactly to plan. The clown pair didn't survive my being gone Thanksgiving week, unfortunately. The water tested fine, the YWG and zoas were fine, so I don't know what the deal was there.
On the plus side, the cyano hasn't made a reappearance, and the GHA, while not completely gone, has stayed at very manageable levels, even with my somewhat inconsistent care. My CuC has dwindled down to one hermit and a couple of snails, so I have a new batch coming from Reefcleaners, along with another ball of chaeto to replace the original batch that I accidentally nuked during my battle with cyano and GHA.
Today I picked up an adorable little black clown and a nice firefish to bring a little more life back into the tank, and so far they seem to be doing well. I'll be getting some more mushrooms to augment my zoa population, then hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my lights to accommodate some more interesting corals.
I also expressed my displeasure with my LFS' almost $3/gal for RO/DI water to the owner, who I know fairly well both professionally and socially. He offered me pre-mixed 1.023 saltwater made from their RO/DI for $1/gal in appreciation for all the business I've done with him (mostly reptile related) over the past 5 years. I'll give it a try (after testing it thoroughly, of course), and if it works out well it will end up costing about half as much as buying distilled water from Wal-Mart and mixing it myself. That will likely lead to me increasing my water changes from 4gal/week to 4gal/2x weekly.
Hopefully doubled water changes, new CuC and chaeto will clear up the remaining GHA once and for all.
A few quick shots of the fish, sadly the zoas were still pissed after I blew the rocks off with the turkey baster earlier. Can see the last bit of GHA in the background.
On the plus side, the cyano hasn't made a reappearance, and the GHA, while not completely gone, has stayed at very manageable levels, even with my somewhat inconsistent care. My CuC has dwindled down to one hermit and a couple of snails, so I have a new batch coming from Reefcleaners, along with another ball of chaeto to replace the original batch that I accidentally nuked during my battle with cyano and GHA.
Today I picked up an adorable little black clown and a nice firefish to bring a little more life back into the tank, and so far they seem to be doing well. I'll be getting some more mushrooms to augment my zoa population, then hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my lights to accommodate some more interesting corals.
I also expressed my displeasure with my LFS' almost $3/gal for RO/DI water to the owner, who I know fairly well both professionally and socially. He offered me pre-mixed 1.023 saltwater made from their RO/DI for $1/gal in appreciation for all the business I've done with him (mostly reptile related) over the past 5 years. I'll give it a try (after testing it thoroughly, of course), and if it works out well it will end up costing about half as much as buying distilled water from Wal-Mart and mixing it myself. That will likely lead to me increasing my water changes from 4gal/week to 4gal/2x weekly.
Hopefully doubled water changes, new CuC and chaeto will clear up the remaining GHA once and for all.
A few quick shots of the fish, sadly the zoas were still pissed after I blew the rocks off with the turkey baster earlier. Can see the last bit of GHA in the background.
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